End-User Training (EUT) – An Option or a Must for Successful ERP Implementation?

Why do organizations invest in implementing ERP software? As we all know, the answer is very simple – to make operational processes more efficient and improve performance by automating all the technology, services, and human resources related functions. Isn’t it? But, according to the 2015 ERP Report of Panorama Consulting Solutions, 21% of companies have defined their ERP projects as failures compared to 16% in 2014. The report also shows that 52% of the organizations faced some sort of material operational disruption at the time of go-live. Further, 60% of companies failed to gain the expected business benefits from their ERP implementations, which is an increase of approximately 10% over the previous year.

You can see that the numbers have been getting worse year by year and many organizations feel hiring qualified ERP consultants can help in successful ERP project implementation. But that would be a costly affair, increasing your project budget. You must understand that one of the major causes for such a debacle has been ‘not investing’ or ‘inadequate’ End-User Training (EUT). End-user training plays a vital role in the successful implementation of ERP software.

Let us try to understand why training plays such an important in the successful implementation of ERP software.

Adapt to change

It’s human tendency not to adapt to change easily. Automating manual processes is a big change. Employees may not feel comfortable adapting to this drastic change in the processes. Training helps employees get familiar with the process and adapt to the change quickly. Specially, a lack of software training can lead to employees being unproductive in their jobs.

Get employees’ buy-in

When you implement ERP software in your organization and provide employees the user manuals of that software to explore, they may not show interest in learning. Adults need to know why they have to undergo training. So you must communicate the importance of the software and most importantly, how it affects their daily tasks. This ensures employees voluntarily undergo training.

Minimize the learning curve

When software such as ERP is implemented in the organization, we expect the employees to explore and learn the software by using the user manuals provided by the software vendor. Such a learning experience is time consuming. Providing end-user training minimizes this learning curve and helps employees dive into the workflow as soon as possible.

Increase employee productivity and company earnings

ERP software is implemented to improve organizational performance. End-user training ensures that employees take full advantage of the software’s benefits which in turn would help them improve their individual performance and become more productive. When individual productivity improves, the overall performance of the organization also improves. So, end-user training helps complete the cycle.

According to the book Novel Methods and Technologies for Enterprise Information Systems, on an average, end-user training costs account for up to 30% of the total ERP implementation budget, but organizations that spend less that 15% are likely to have insufficiently trained employees. End-user training is an important element for successful implementation of ERP software. Hope you find this post helpful. Please share your thoughts through your comments.